Found Among the Tattered
by parallelintoperpendicular
Summary: McGee has been shot, and the team is working to find out who is responsible. But while following the clues to the shooter, the team finds out much more, and is left with a greater mess than originally thought.
1. Chapter 1

The outside of the house looked like every other base house. The lawn was well kept, there was even an inviting "Welcome" sign hanging beside the front door. But, Tony suspected the interior would be much different. This was the house of a man who had killed 2 people in the past week and was "known" to be the biggest methamphetamine dealer in the area. Now, he just had to figure out why a cell phone registered to McGee was doing in this house.

_"Why couldn't Probie just be awake to explain this for himself?" _ He regretted it the second after he thought it. This wasn't McGee's fault, he had nothing to do with this madness, he couldn't, and it was his Probie for God's sake. McGee did not choose to get shot and have to go into surgery for over 8 hours to recover all the bullets. Tony was determined to find out what happened to McGee.

"Tony, are you coming?" Ziva asked, a little impatient with the dazed agent. She knew they had all been under emotional distress since McGee's shooting, but there was work that needed to be done to solve this.

"Yes, yes, sorry. Let's go. It doesn't look like anyone is home, wanna pick a lock today?"

"You don't want to try to find the "hidden key" everyone seems to have?"

"No, let's just go in."

The inside of the house was atrocious, to be kind. There were beer bottles all over the floor, poker chips strewn everywhere. It looked like a frat house that hadn't been cleaned in years. There were cigar stains on almost all items there, the couches, the walls.

Tony and Ziva did a check, everything seemed to be clear. They started looking around for clues. And the mysterious phone. Tony was in the kitchen, Ziva in the living room.

"Found anything yet Ziva?"

"Nothing, it's just very dirty, like a rat's pen."

"You mean a pig's sty."

"Right, whatever."

Tony opened the pantry, nothing in there, not even food. He moved on to what he thought was a broom closet. As he opened it he was conked over the head with a dustpan.

He quickly responded, but clearly not quick enough as his attacker, kicked him, sacked him and knocked him to the ground. Ziva waited at the threshold of the living room, for the attacker to escape, prepared to get them. When they rounded the corner, Ziva clotheslined them. But, the attacker recovered, and managed to pin Ziva to the ground and then flee the scene out the front door.

Tony and Ziva quickly jumped up again, a bit hazed and dashed out the front door after their attacker. She hadn't got too far, she was just rounding the corner of the street when they pulled their weapons. "NCIS, stop!"

The girl immediately stopped, turned around and walked back towards them.

"Had you clearly identified yourselves when you entered the house, this mess would not have been necessary."

She sat in the interrogation room while Abby watched from the other side. She was finding the prospect of this young girl being involved with this scheme not very plausible. But this was where the evidence had led her, they had found the cell phone on the girl, and she was going to do anything to catch who hurt her McGee.

She was pretty, in a rough trimmed kind of way. With a thick, long, curly mane of auburn hair, deep green eyes and a slender but muscular body. Her face was filled with cuts and bruises and from what Abby could see from between her ripped jeans and t-shirt, so was a good percentage of her body. She didn't know what to think of this girl, she looked so scared and hurt, but maybe it was a charade, she could just be playing them. Abby ran to her lab to go get more information on this mysterious girl.

Tony stormed into the interrogation room, with Gibbs not in the building following other leads and checking up on McGee periodically, it was his interrogation.

"What did you think you were doing assaulting two federal agents?" He shouted.

"You…you..you hadn't clearly identified yourself, I thought you were part of Dwayne's crew."

"And why would you beat up Dwayne's crew? Aren't you a part of them?" Tony knew he could be using better interrogation techniques but he just wanted answers. And he wanted them now.

"No."

"Then what were you doing in his house, hiding in the broom closet, ready to fight?"

"That's my house…..Or at least it was."

Tony just looked at her, nodding at her to proceed. For a girl who just attacked him and Ziva, she seemed pretty willing to answer his questions.

"My mom is Dwayne's wife."

"So he's your stepdad."

"He is NOT my stepdad, my mother being married to him and me having him as a fatherly influence are two separate things."

"So you were hiding from your st- Dwayne's crew? Why?"

"I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. The closet only opens from the outside."

Gibbs sat in the waiting room, dreading the arrival of McGee's parent and sister. He didn't want to have to be the one that told them that McGee was in surgery for extensive gunshot wounds and the doctors were unsure of whether he would survive. He just couldn't. He didn't want to see the sadness and grief in their eyes, he didn't want to face that he may lose another agent today.

Gibbs had been to question Petty Officer Jones and Petty Officer Lancedon's parents once more, hoping to get a bit more information about what they were like. He was trying to piece together how these boys got caught up in the drug world. Everything that everyone told him about them seemed to say they were not those kinds of kids, that they were upstanding citizens. His meetings with the parents went no better. Gibbs was going to return to NCIS once Tim's family arrived.

Abby was typing faster than she ever had. _Almost at the speed McGee could_ she thought. She sighed, she missed having him here. And what made the longing for him even worse was knowing how in danger he is, how he could die. She couldn't even think about it if she was going to continue her work.

She was piling through the evidence a mile a minute, bullet casings from the crime scene, meth samples from the Petty Officers' scene and DNA from the mystery girl. She knew Tony was going to give her all that info when he came down after the interrogation, but she wanted to, she had to be one step ahead of the ball.

Abby had sampled some blood smeared over Tony's shirt from the altercation with the girl. Tony and Ziva had been left with no scrapes, just a few bruises and sore limbs, so she was certain the blood had to be from the girl.

Running it through AVFIS she had finally got a hit, but it was never what she expected. She was trying to take it in when Tony stormed into her lab.

"Emmalise Seymour."

"What?"

"Emmalise Seymour, that's the girl upstairs, her mother is married to Dwayne. And I'm quite certain she is being abused: by both Dwayne and her mother."

"Oh my God, really? Are you sure?"

"She was locked in a closest for over 12 hours; I was what got her out of there. And when I poked and prodded a little bit more she alluded to being used as a punching bag more than once." Tony never liked the people they brought in, but he could not stand child abusers, his blood was boiling on this one.

"I asked her about the cell phone but she wouldn't say a thing about it, she is hiding something, it's like she doesn't trust me with this one piece of information. And I don't know how to make her at ease to tell me." Tony sighed.

Throughout this entire exchange Abby had just stood there dumbfounded, staring at the computer screen. Tony peered at what she was looking at.

"A 50% DNA match. Whom for?"

"I took the blood from your shirt and ran it through AVFIS, just in case the girl, Emmalise, didn't give us her name. AVFIS just came in with a semi-match, it matched her parent's."

"Oh, her mother's got a criminal record, doesn't surprise me?"

"No, look at the name Tony."

And there on the computer screen a huge piece to the puzzle had been found. _50% match : Timothy McGee. _


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you absolutely sure Abs? McGeek would have shared something like having a kid with us."

"100% positive. And it all makes sense, McGee had done some odd spending, like ballet classes and self defense lessons and lots of things from women's stores. And my guess is, he bought her the cell phone. Tony, they called almost every night, for about an hour each time. He must have known she was being abused, and about Dwayne."

"And that's probably what got him shot."

Sarah rushed into the waiting room and scanned the area. Immediately she fixated on Gibbs and ran over.

"What happened? How is he? Can I see him?"

"Calm down, Sarah, come sit down right here" Gibbs replied calmly as he motioned to the seats nearby. "Are your parents coming as well?"

"Mom and Dad went on a cruise…..to celebrate their anniversary. Should I call them home?"

"No, let's not worry about that right now. Your brother, Tim…he was shot 4 times this morning. The bullets entered near his heart and one was shot through his lung. He is currently in surgery, and the best doctors are working on him. Okay?" Gibbs explained, more of a reassurance for himself, it will be fine.

"When….when…can I see him? Who did this? Why Tim?" Sarah was beginning to feel the tears form.

"We're not sure, but the entire team is working on it. We'll find whoever did this…..Do you know if there was anyone that would want to hurt McGee, was he feeling suspicious about anything/anyone?"

"No. Nothing at all, mind you Tim and I haven't spoken in a few weeks, I've been so tied up with work."

"Okay. I have to go back to work, there is an agent here who will make sure no one tries a second attack. You still have my cell number?"

"Yes. Just please find whoever did this."

"We will." And with that promise Gibbs left and headed back to NCIS Headquarters.

As Gibbs left the hospital and made his way to the car his phone started to ring.

"Gibbs"

"Hey Boss, how's McGee?"

"Hangin' in there. Sarah just arrived. He has a few more hours of surgery ahead of him. Did you find anything at Dwayne's house?"

"Um….kind of….it's anyone, but yes…we uhhhh…."

"Spit it out Dinozzo!"

"McGee's daughter was at the house - locked in a closet. She's Dwayne's step-daughter."

"McGee's daughter what? Okay, I'm on my way over right now. I want some answers. Don't talk to her again till I get there."

"But Boss, I think she has some inju…" And with that the line went dead.

"That did not sound good." Ziva piped in from behind Tony, as she walked towards him.

"Gibbs wants to come back and interrogate Emmalise, but I think we need to bring her to a hospital to get her injuries assessed, I believe she's more injured than she's letting on."

Tim could hear the doctors talking. About what - he couldn't tell you that. _They all sound so muffled, where am I, what's going on, what was I doing? "….blood…entries…removal…..almost….." _And then it clicked.

Flashback:

Tim was worried. Nope, scratch that – Tim was frantic. Her phone was shut off, it was never shut off. Ever. He tried calling again, but to no avail.

McGee had called the night previous but was sent straight to voicemail. He left a message just checking in, she was probably just practicing her routines, or doing homework; she was almost as studious as he was. After sending a text asking her to give him a text or a call soon to chat he went to bed.

It was 7 in the morning. It had been over 24 hours since they had last communicated. She would just be getting up right now. McGee went about his morning routine, desperate for even just a "K" as a text response. Anything. He feared for the worst. _Maybe I shouldn't have poked and prodded so much, she didn't really want to admit to anything. But I just want her to be safe. I hope she doesn't distrust me anymore, that article I read online said…..never mind. She just has to be safe. _

It was now 8 and still no text message to be found. _I better go investigate. The last time this happened there were some stiches involved. _

Tim quickly grabbed his gear, sent Gibbs a message saying he'd be late and jumped in his car off towards the base homes.

First he stopped by the bus stop, it seemed like every kid in the naval base was there except for Emmalise. Next was her house.

No cars were out front, so he got out of the car and stepped up to the door. Locked. He knocked a few times, called out for Emmalise, but got not reply, it was quiet. The idea of breaking in and making sure she wasn't dead in there crossed his mind, but he was likely just overreacting and a break and enter charge was not what he needed to support his case once Emmalise decided she wanted help getting out of here.

He felt defeated; maybe she really didn't want to see him anymore. He decided to make one last risky move – head down near Dwayne's "boathouse". He knew what it was actually used for, but no one as of yet had been able to find any solid proof.

He slowed as drove into the subdivision, scanning all the streets. It was quite the run down area, just near a small lake area. A pretty sketchy part of town, no one was even bothered by the presence of the drug dealer. _This wouldn't be the first time I've picked her up from here. _

As he approached the boat house he saw a young marine in uniforms fighting with what appeared to be one of Dwayne's "boat assistants". As he pulled off to the side of the road and pretending making a phone call to observe two shots rang out. McGee immediately jumped out of the car and pulled out his weapon.

At the same time, someone behind him pulled one too.

"Good day Agent McGee, may I help you? You wouldn't be looking for that daughter of mine now would you?" whispered Dwayne.

McGee turned around to face Dwayne and that was the last thing he could remember.


End file.
